Futuremark PCMark 11 Advanced Edition ($19.95 direct) is the latest version of the popular PC gaming performance benchmark. It is designed to evaluate your computer's handling of all the major features of DirectX 11, including tessellation, compute shaders, and multithreading.

PCMark 11 contains four graphics tests, measuring varying amounts of tessellation and casting lights; one test measuring rigid body physics with a large number of objects; and one test that combines rigid body physics on a moderate number of ojects with soft body physics using DirectCompute and the Bullet physics library. An audio-visual demo mode, which showcases the Deep Sea and High Temple scenes displayed in the benchmark, is also included.

Three presets are available for testing systems at various display resolutions: Entry (1,024 by 600, intended primarily for notebooks or netbooks and putting the lowest amount of strain on the video system); Performance (1,280 by 720), aimed at everyday gaming tasks and involving a moderate graphics load; and Extreme (1,920 by 1,080), optimized for high-end PCs with powerful video hardware. In addition, a custom setting lets you run at any resolution, aspect ratio, or detail settings you specify.

PCMark 11 Advanced Edition lets you run the demo mode at a wide range of custom resolutions, save your benchmark result files to your hard drive or another local offline location, and store an unlimited number of results online without be interrupted by advertisements while you're logged into the Web-based service.

About the Author

Matthew Murray got his humble start leading a technology-sensitive life in elementary school, where he struggled to satisfy his ravenous hunger for computers, computer games, and writing book reports in Integer BASIC. He earned his B.A. in Dramatic Writing at Western Washington University, where he also minored in Web design and German. He has been... See Full Bio

Futuremark 3DMark 11 Advanced E...

Futuremark 3DMark 11 Advanced Edition

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